Rampant abuse, mismanagement in local gov't

Chaos in registration processes, arbitrary assesment of real estate values, clerks buying public property without tenders, negligence in publishing important information and various cases of mismanagement and corruption -- these are the things that the Supreme Board of Inspection (NIK) revealed in its recent report on local authorities. Discrepancies were found in all of the 89 examined units of local government, believed to have resulted in losses of over zl. 5.7 million. "We hope that the voters will remember the performance of their representatives and avoid electing them again," said Zbigniew Kuzmiuk, head of the Sejm's Local Administation and Regional Policy Commission. "This report should be used heavily by the prosecutor," he said. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A3) M.K.